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Muti

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra makes a joyful noise this weekend, performing to capacity crowds. Riccardo Muti opens the concert season with four sold-out performances of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, and a free Tchaikovsky concert at Millennium Park.

“Carlos has a genius for conducting, but he doesn’t enjoy doing it. He tells me, ‘I conduct only when I’m hungry’. And it’s true. He has a deep-freeze. He fills it up and cooks for himself and when it gets down to a certain level, then he thinks ‘Now I might do a concert’.” That

Anyone who has seen Riccardo Muti catch air on the podium, might be hard-pressed to think of him as an old dog. Last spring, the youthful, now 73-year-old conductor demonstrated his willingness to learn new tricks: he led the CSO in his first-ever performance of the Elgar Cello Concerto.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director talks about the Verdi he has not conducted, Richard Strauss works he plans to add to his repertoire, and the role of principal players in an ensemble. Hear the conversation on Monday’s edition of Critical Thinking with Andrew Patner.

The legacy of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra received a boost on Thursday with the announcement of two multimillion-dollar gifts − among the largest in the orchestra’s history according to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association. Chicago-based Sam and Helen Zell

In some arenas, pulling back the proverbial curtain is about as magical as Dorothy’s Wizard of Oz. When it comes to rehearsals with the Chicago Symphony and music director Riccardo Muti, this is not the case. First of all, one has to marvel at the preparedness

For Giuseppe Verdi’s Macbeth, which opens this weekend at Symphony Center, nearly three hundred people will come together under his baton; a chorus, an orchestra, and soloists who’ve collectively logged lifetimes in the practice room. One chorister admits, “When Muti comes out for that first rehearsal, it’s terrifying—but it’s amazing. He’s incredible.”

If you believe what you read, the town of Cicero has a troubled history. Iniquitous associations linger for decades, while saying nothing of the men and women who live, work, and raise families here. On Wednesday, the people of Cicero had the opportunity to show something of their fiber: world-renowned conductor Riccardo Muti

Maestro Muti concluded the Chicago Symphony season at Symphony Center on Sunday with an impromptu speech from the stage saying the first thing he would do when his plane lands in Rome is to find out “if the Hawks won.”

At the age of 5, Austrian pianist Rudolf Buchbinder set the record for being the youngest student ever admitted to the Vienna Musik Hochschule. Early in his career, he recorded all the Beethoven sonatas and piano concertos; recently he recorded them all again—the concertos with the Vienna Philharmonic